Frank James “Gary” Cooper (May 7, 1901 – May 13, 1961) was an American film actor. He was renowned for his quiet, understated acting style and his stoic, individualistic, emotionally restrained, but at times intense screen persona, which was particularly well suited to the many Westerns he made. His career spanned from 1925 until shortly before his death, and comprised more than one hundred films.

When Cooper was 13, he injured his hip in a car accident. He returned to his parents' ranch near Helena to recuperate by horseback riding at the recommendation of his doctor. Cooper studied at Iowa's Grinnell College until the spring of 1924, but did not graduate. He had tried out, unsuccessfully, for the college's drama club.[2] He returned to Helena, managing the ranch and contributing cartoons to the local newspaper. In 1924, Cooper's father left the Montana Supreme Court bench and moved with his wife to Los Angeles. Gary, unable to make a living as an editorial cartoonist in Helena, joined them,[3] moving there that same year,[4] reasoning that he "would rather starve where it was warm, than to starve and freeze too."[5]

Hollywood

Failing as a salesman of electric signs and theatrical curtains, as a promoter for a local photographer and as an applicant for newspaper work in Los Angeles,[3] Cooper found work as an actor in 1925.[4] He earned money as an "extra" in the motion picture industry, usually cast as a cowboy. He is known to have had an uncredited role in the 1925 Tom Mix Western, Dick Turpin.[6] The following year, he had screen credit in a two-reeler, Lightnin' Wins, with actress Eileen Sedgwick as his leading lady.

After the release of this short film, Cooper accepted a long-term contract with Paramount Pictures. He changed his name to Gary in 1925, following the advice of casting director Nan Collins,[7] who felt it evoked the "rough, tough" nature of her native Gary, Indiana.[8]

In 1953, Cooper won his second Best Actor Academy Award for his performance as Marshal Will Kane in High Noon, considered his finest role. Ill with an ulcer, he wasn't present to receive his Academy Award in February 1953. He asked John Wayne to accept it on his behalf, a bit of irony in light of Wayne's stated distaste for the film.[12]

Several years ago, when communism was more of a social chit-chatter in parties for offices, and so on when communism didn't have the implications that it has now, discussion of communism was more open and I remember hearing statements from some folks to the effect that the communistic system had a great many features that were desirable. It offered the actors and artists — in other words, the creative people — a special place in government where we would be somewhat immune from the ordinary leveling of income. And as I remember, some actor's name was mentioned to me who had a house in Moscow which was very large — he had three cars, and stuff, with his house being quite a bit larger than my house in Beverly Hills at the time — and it looked to me like a pretty phony come-on to us in the picture business. From that time on, I could never take any of this pinko mouthing very seriously, because I didn't feel it was on the level.

Personal life

Cooper had high-profile relationships with actresses Clara Bow, Lupe Vélez, and the American-born socialite-spy Countess Carla Dentice di Frasso (née Dorothy Caldwell Taylor, formerly wife of British pioneer aviatorClaude Grahame-White). He is also believed to have had an affair with actor Anderson Lawler, with whom he lived, and who introduced him to Hollywood society.[13][14][15]

On December 15, 1933, Cooper wed Veronica Balfe, (May 27 1913 - February 16 2000), known as "Rocky." Balfe was a New YorkRoman Catholic socialite who had briefly acted under the name of Sandra Shaw. She appeared in the film No Other Woman, but her most widely seen role was in King Kong, as the woman dropped by Kong. Her third and final film was Blood Money. Her father was governor of the New York Stock Exchange, and her uncle was Cedric Gibbons. During the 1930s she also became the California state women's skeet shooting champion. They had one child, Maria, now Maria Cooper Janis, married to classical pianist Byron Janis.

Eventually, Cooper's wife persuaded Cooper to convert to Catholicism in 1958. After he was married, but prior to his conversion, Cooper had affairs with several famous co-stars, including Marlene Dietrich, Grace Kelly, and Patricia Neal. He pressured Neal to have an abortion in 1950, since fathering a child out of wedlock could have destroyed his career.[16] Cooper's daughter Maria, when she was a little girl, famously spat at Neal,[17] but many years later, the two became friends. Cooper separated from his wife between 1951 and 1954.

Death from cancer

In April 1960, Cooper underwent surgery for prostate cancer after it had spread to his colon. It spread to his lungs and bones shortly thereafter.

Cooper was too ill to attend the Academy Awards ceremony in April 1961, so his close friend James Stewart accepted the honorary Oscar on his behalf. Stewart's emotional speech hinted that something was seriously wrong, and the next day newspapers ran the headline, "Gary Cooper has cancer." One month later Cooper was dead, six days after his 60th birthday.

Charlton Heston often cited Cooper as a childhood role model,[citation needed] and later worked with him on The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959). Heston praised Cooper[citation needed] for doing his own stunts despite his age and poor health.

Gary Cooper's photograph from High Noon was used on a famous poster for campaign before first free elections in communist Poland in 1989.

In the HBO series The Sopranos, Tony Soprano on more than one occasion remarks on his admiration for Gary Cooper, the "strong, silent type".

In September 2009, Cooper was featured on a commemorative U.S. postage stamp.[20]

Gary Cooper (born Frank James CooperMay 7, 1901 – May 13, 1961[1]) was an American film actor. His career went from the 1925 until 1961, during which he made one hundred films. Cooper received five Oscar nominations for Best Actor, and won it two times, in 1941 and 1952. He also received an Honorary Award from the Academy in 1961.